Lecture by Prajakti Kalra (University of Cambridge):
The Silk Road and the Political Economy of the Mongol Empire
Date: 25th October 2022, 17:00 (CET)
Location: Austrian Academy of Science, IMAFO library, 3rd floor, Hollandstraße 11-13, 1020 Vienna
Abstract:
The growing importance of Central and Inner Asia and the Silk Road is much discussed at present. This talk compares the nature of present day networks in these regions with the patterns of similar connections which existed at the time of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century and its successor states. It considers the long lasting impact of institutions and infrastructure in Mongol Eurasia along with settlement patterns, technology and technology transfer, trade, political arrangements, the role of religion and the impact of the powerful states which border the region. The main element to be emphasised here is the importance given to connectivity that ensured mobility, exchange and access to a wide array of resources. The exchange of information especially in matters of trade and commerce along with the continued support of physical and institutional infrastructure (financing of projects and provision of security) and other policies that could be seen across the wider Eurasian space: Central Eurasia, Iran and even India even after the Mongol Empire ceased to exist, well into the 18-19th centuries. The tools of understanding the Silk Road region need to accommodate medieval empires (nomadic) and their partners (Central Asian polities) to understand the importance of connectivity in the region. By focusing on infrastructure support, institutional and physical, for linking micro economies (carpet making, textiles, pottery) of Central Asia to create a macro economy that connected the known world at the time as one of the main reasons for unprecedented success in Eurasia during the Mongol Period reveals a vivid picture of a world order that began in the 13th century and lasted well into the European colonial period. The Eurasian narrative with the Mongol Empire of the 13th century at the centre is a story unlike one told from a Sinocentric, Russocentric or Eurocentric perspective, originating from the expanse of (nomadic) empires and reimagines the future of the Silk Road region beyond the confines of individual nation states. Overall, the talk will demonstrate that the Mongol Empire anticipated many of the networks and connections which exist in the region at present.
This event is co-organised by the Nomads’ Manuscripts Landscape project team at the Institute of Iranian Studies and the Mongolian Cluster at the University of Vienna.